Welcome to
Bamboo Dojo

Master Vu Trinh, a 6th-degree Black Belt in Cuong Nhu, is a Civil Engineer working for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) as the State Aviation Engineering Manager. In this position, he’s responsible for all the issues that are related to the design and construction of the Florida Airport System (FAS) which consists of almost 400 airports in Florida. Right after the Vietnam War, Master Vu Trinh resettled his life in America. He earned his degree in Civil Engineering by attending school at night and during the weekends while working during the days at the FDOT as a draftsman, a program sponsored by the FDOT to help its employees who wanted to improve their education and become an engineer. During the last year of this Engineering Program, based on his excellent academic achievement, the FDOT qualified him to attend college full-time to complete his education. During this time, Master Vu Trinh was honored as a Dwight David Eisenhower Fellow recipient, the highest Transportation scholarship ($20,000.00) from the United States Federal Government, along with many other educational achievement awards. Due to his position with the FDOT, he changed his major from civil engineering to industrial engineering while attending his graduate program at the FSU College of Engineering. While holding the title of the State Aviation Engineering Manager, other high-demand responsibilities of Master Vu were to train approximately 200 engineers and airport staff from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), other State Agencies, and consultants, every year on the method of “Airfield Pavement Inspection” and “Runways and Taxiway Distress repair”, as well as the method of calculating the PCI (Pavement Condition Index), and ACN/PCN (Aircraft Classification Numbers / Pavement Classification Number) which was required by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization. He has written many technical books and field manuals that are used to teach these engineering courses. Master Vu Trinh has also served as a Chief Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer for several highly technical aviation-related projects at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Port in Florida and received appreciative recognition from them. After 35 years working for the FDOT, Master Vu Trinh retired and opened his own Aviation Engineering Company, Florida Airfield Pavement Management Systems (APMS). He’s President and serves as his company’s Chief Engineer. 

Regarding his martial arts experience, from a young age, Master Vu Trinh has trained in several types of Martial Arts in Vietnam as well as overseas, ranging from Vietnamese traditional Martial Arts Vovinam, Vo Ta, Vo Binh-Dinh; Chinese Martial Arts Shaolin Kungfu; Wing Chung to Japanese Martial Arts Judo, Aikido, and Shotokan. During the Vietnam War, Master Vu served as a Martial Arts, Hand-on-hand combat, and Jungle Survival instructor for the CAG (Combined Action Group) Organization, a Joint Military unit that was created between South Vietnamese forces, the United States Marines Corp (USMC), and the Republic of South Korean Marines Corp (ROKMC) forces that were deployed near the Danang military zone and the I Corp headquarters. In 1968, another remarkable Martial Arts event took place for him, Master Vu Trinh represented his Military I Corp (Central of Vietnam) by competing in a Military Martial Arts competition in Pusan, South Korea, along with South Korea’s Blue Dragon Marine Corp Brigade. He placed first overall and was asked to stay over to train Military Special Forces for six months. While in the United States, Master Vu Trinh had the opportunity to further his martial arts experience by training in Cuong Nhu Martial Arts with a couple of high-ranking Cuong Nhu instructors in the beginning, and later, with the founder of this style, the late Grand Master Dong Ngo, who was the former President of Quang Da University in Viet Nam, and his successor, the late Grand Master Quynh Ngo.

Needless to say, Master Vu is a unique individual and extraordinarily creative Martial Arts instructor. In many cases, perhaps due to his high expectations, he has tried to perform highly demanding Martial Arts techniques that other Martial Arts experts haven’t previously performed. These unique pictures and videos posted on this website are excellent examples of this concept. More specifically, both videos with the titles “10 Most Basic but Effective Aikido and Judo Against Knives You Must Know While in Handcuffs”, and “Breaking A Beer Bottle While Blindfolded” had never before, as of today, been performed by anyone of any style due to the high demanding skill and the accuracy of performances. In the first video, Master Vu’s hands were handcuffed while protecting himself from a knife attacker, while in the second video, Master Vu’s eyes were blindfolded while breaking a beer bottle with a knife-hand chop. Regarding these posted Martial Arts action pictures, there is a good saying: “A picture is worth more than a thousand words….”. Indeed, among the posted pictures, each of them is unusual and unique. Whether observing the picture of him speeded-breaking three vertically standing up 3-red bricks, the picture of him performing a flying side kick to break 3 wooden boards held by a group of his students with two sitting on top of the other two that were standing up at a height of approximately 6’ high or higher, the picture of him chopping 7 concrete slabs with his bare hand, or the picture that showed he was splitting a piece of thick mountain marble with his knife-hand chop, they all make it clear that Master Vu was required to have special knowledge and vast Martial Arts experiences to perform those moves. This is especially obvious in the picture of Maser Vu lying down on a bed of nails on his bare back while three heavy concrete blocks lay on his stomach. Eventually, they were all smashed by a big hammer used by another student. Overall, the picture demonstrates his capability in regard to his internal power training skills.

In the early 1980s, while attending the Engineering Programs at the FSU College of Engineering, Master Vu Trinh began teaching Cuong Nhu Martial Arts on FSU’s campus. He named his Cuong Nhu Martial Arts school the BAMBOO DOJO since he believed that bamboo plants are always growing together as a group. They care for and reinforce each other to cope with the strong blowing winds and bad weather. By using this name, he encourages in his students the concept of togetherness, which means if you want to win the battle you must always stick together and help each other to defend against attackers both mentally and physically. During that time, he was also encouraged by his Grand Master in Shaolin Kung Fu from Viet Nam to open a Shaolin Kung Fu school in the local community where he lived to further develop this style. From the time he began teaching Cuong Nhu and Shaolin Kung Fu in the United States, Master Vu Trinh participated in numerous Martial Arts tournaments, nationally as well as locally, and received many first and second place trophies in Form (Kata), Fighting (Kumite), Weaponries, and Breaking. Many of his students from the Bamboo Dojo have won many trophies in the tournaments as well. Among them is Sensei Michael Hornback, a fourth-degree black belt who currently operates his own Cuong Nhu Dojo in Orlando with approximately 100 students. Sensei Michael won 1st place in a national martial arts tournament by performing the Combat Samurai Japanese Sword Form was created by Master Vu Trinh. At a different tournament, another of his students from the Bamboo Dojo, Sensei Tomohiro won the first-place trophy with a nun-chuck form which was also created by Master Vu Trinh. Most recently, in 2021, a couple of students from Bamboo Dojo, Ethan Corey, and Dory Beaubrun entered a martial arts tournament, with Ethan winning first place in Kata and Dory winning first place in sparring, in their divisions.  Since moving to the United States, Master Vu Trinh participated in many martial arts tournaments to compete in the divisions of forms, weaponry, and sparring. He won more than >50 trophies, most of which were placed in 1st or 2nd, as shown in the picture titled “Master Vu Trinh in his Martial Arts room at home.” 

While working during the day and attending school at night and on the weekends, Master Vu operated four Martial Schools. Besides teaching Cuong Nhu at the FSU and instructing at his Shaolin Kung Fu school, he also taught Cuong Nhu at Gold’s Gym, where he worked out daily, and at the Inside Out Fitness Center in Tallahassee, Florida. After completing his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, due to the heavy workload from the graduate program at the FSU College of Engineering, Master Vu had no other choice but to close all his martial arts schools besides the Cuong Nhu Bamboo Dojo at FSU. During more than 40 years teaching Cuong Nhu at the FSU, Master Vu has produced approximately 35-40 black belts, ranging from 1st to 4th degrees. Among them, some are opening their own Cuong Nhu Dojos all over the country such as Sensei Lucy Nguyen in Boca Raton as Cohead Instructor of Shuhari Dojo, Sensei Michael Hornback in Orlando with his Hero Academy Dojo, Sensei Mike Shankman in Destin, and Sensei Danny Pietrangelo with his Pyramid Dojo in Tallahassee. Another former student, Sensei Jacob Perrone, who currently became the head instructor at the University of Florida. Sensei Jacob trained with Master Vu Trinh for about two years. He then graduated from Florida State University and moved to the University of Florida to finish his Master’s Program.
Master Vu attained the rank of Black Belt in April 1981, along with Master Kirk Fiber, (currently a 7th-degree Black Belt) and Master Bao Ngo (an 8th-degree Black Belt), the oldest son of the late Professor Dong Ngo. The reason for falling behind in ranking in Cuong Nhu compared to his rank mates is perhaps because he went back to school to obtain degrees in Construction, Civil, and Industrial Engineering. On November 14, 2020, Master Vu Trinh was promoted to the Master rank of RokuDan (6th degree Black Belt) in Cuong Nhu by the late Grand Master Quynh Ngo, the younger son of the founder of Cuong Nhu, Professor Dong Ngo. Master Vu founded the Bamboo Dojo in 1981. Since then, he has served as the Head Instructor of the Bamboo Dojo. Currently, Master Vu Trinh teaches Cuong Nhu three days a week at Florida State University (FSU), a free Martial Arts Class that is organized for FSU students and the employees working for FSU. The main reason for him to do so is to show that he wants to contribute some of his helpful martial arts skills back to the country's society that provided him freedom, helped him resettle, and improved his life after the Vietnam War. Furthermore, Cuong Nhu is one of the Vietnamese Martial Arts styles. Teaching Cuong Nhu is a way of sharing the Vietnamese culture with people from all over the world, which is an opportunity, and also the responsibility of any Vietnamese living in America like him.